U.S. Navy’s LCS Wichita Suffers Propulsion Plant Casualty

The U.S. Navy’s four-year-old littoral combat ship USS Wichita (LCS 13) suffered a problem in its propulsion plant Oct. 19 as it was on its way home from deployment.

The Naval Safety Command has dubbed it a “Class A” mishap, which involves damages exceeding $2.5 million, Defense News reported citing Navy officials.

The warship was able to return to its home port in Mayport, Florida, under its own power two days later, following a deployment to U.S. 4th Fleet.

SURFLANT spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jason Fischer said that, while the cause of Wichita’s malfunction remains unclear, the command is “confident it wasn’t a combining gear issue.”

The combining gear is basically a complex transmission that connects power from two large gas turbine engines and two main propulsion diesel engines to the ship’s propulsion shafts.

In early 2021, the Navy refused to accept new Freedom-class LCS vessels until manufacturer Lockheed Martin fixed a flaw the service found in its combining gear. This May, the service accepted LCS 21, the first ship of this class to receive a fix.

Wichita has yet to go through the combining gear repair process, officials told the outlet.